STEM: Have We Been Misled?

Over a year ago our local congressman pushed a bill that he created that would provide a tax credit to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) majors.

“We have to acknowledge that this country has to step up and formally encourage people to do the things we say they should be doing,” Hanna said.

One would get the impression that there is a national shortage of STEM majors if we have to "encourage" students to do what "we say they should be doing." We previously blogged about this bill here.

The problem is, there ISN'T a STEM shortage after all: What STEM Shortage? (Steven Camarota in National Review Online)

The idea that we need to allow in more workers with science, technology, engineering, and math (“STEM”) background is an article of faith among American business and political elite.
. . . The country has well more than twice as many workers with STEM degrees as there are STEM jobs. Also consistent with other research, we find only modest levels of wage growth for such workers for more than a decade. Both employment and wage data indicate that such workers are not in short supply.

So why the push to increase STEM majors and why the push to allow easy immigration of foreign workers with STEM degrees?

The answer, put simply, is greed and politics. 

The businesses that want more immigration would get more workers to choose from, holding wages in check and increasing their bargaining power over their employees.

Read the entire article for an explanation why both political parties have colluded to perpetrate the STEM myth. And ask yourself afterward:

 "Who still represents the interests of the everyday ordinary citizen in Congress?"